


I Don’t Need Fate To Tell Me That I Love You

by The_Wicked_Diamond



Series: Zukka Week 2021 [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Zukka Week 2021
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 19:08:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30060168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Wicked_Diamond/pseuds/The_Wicked_Diamond
Summary: Sokka knows that he doesn’t need a soulmate to be happy. He just wishes fate wasn’t permanently marked into his face.Zukka Week Day 2: Soulmates and Tattoos
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Zukka Week 2021 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2209716
Comments: 4
Kudos: 78





	I Don’t Need Fate To Tell Me That I Love You

**Author's Note:**

> I somehow managed to forget I had even wrote this piece, so enjoy my forgotten work. Again, I wrote this on my laptop, so apologies for any mistakes. Feel free to comment if you find one.

From his tenth birthday onward, Sokka had been considered an outcast in his own tribe. The only people who didn't were his dad, his sister, and his maybe-possible-probably step-dad, Bato. People who had known him since his birth, had taught him and played with, had helped him after the last Fire Nation attack, were suddenly shunning him. 

At first, he didn’t understand.

He woke up, same as every morning, except today was his birthday, and it was his tenth birthday so that meant he was finally getting his soulmark.

He didn’t see it on his arms, and he didn’t see it on his legs, or his stomach, or chest, or his back that he could kinda see if he twisted the right way.

So, logically, Sokka thought that he didn’t have a soulmate and that he would be alone forever, and he ran to find his dad. Unfortunately, Dad was not waiting in the kitchen (and neither was Bato, for that matter), but Sokka couldn’t give up, so he left home and went into the streets looking for his dad(s). 

That’s when things got even weirder.

Toklo, the only guy even close to his age in the whole tribe, glared at him, looking very close to violence, which was so strange to Sokka. They had been friends ever since the Fire Nation killed Toklo’s parents, with Sokka’s mom following a few years later.

Aake, the guy who babysat him and Katara when their parents were busy, sneered at him, turning his body away.

Even Kustaa, the grumpy healer that everyone loved anyway, looked sick at the sight of him.

Sokka felt his heart start racing, and his feet picked up the pace, running through the village, looking for his dad.

He finally found him in the village center, talking with Gran Gran and one of the other elders. Hakoda looked scared, which was wrong, because his dad was never scared, and Gran Gran had worry written all over her face. 

“Dad?” Sokka called out. Hakoda turned towards him and flinched. His own dad flinched at the sight of him, and Sokka wanted to start crying. “What’s going on, Dad?” Hakoda placed a hand on Sokka’s shoulder and pulled the young boy into his chest.

“Have you looked in a mirror this morning, Son?” Sokka looked up and shook his head, confused. Hakoda sighed and pulled Sokka over to the frozen lake. Sokka looked at his reflection, but it wasn’t him staring back up. It was his face, and that was Southern Water Tribe War Paint over his left eye, vaguely in the shape of a hand print, but in entirely the wrong colors, and what were those flowers along his cheek bone? Sokka glanced at his dad’s face in the lake and his mouth was set in a grim line. “I’m sorry, Sokka.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Sokka wasn’t dumb. He knew what those colors meant, knew that those flowers were distinctly Not Southern Water Tribe. Hakoda swallowed thickly.

“Because your soulmate is…” Hakoda trailed off, unable to even say the words.

His soulmate was Fire Nation. The spirits must be having a good laugh at that one. His soulmate was of the same people that killed his mom. Sokka never knew the spirits to deal in irony, but there was a first time for everything, right?

So Sokka’s soulmate was Fire Nation, and he was an outcast in his tribe, but that was okay, because he had Katara and Dad and Bato and Gran Gran.

Until he didn’t.

Until Dad and Bato left to go fight the Fire Nation (his soulmate) and left him there, left him in the village, because he was too young to fight (because he looked like Fire Nation), but that was okay, because he still had Katara and Gran Gran.

Until Aang showed up.

Until the Avatar was hiding in his village (and the water bending marks along his tattooed shoulders definitely matched the air bending marks on Katara’s), and a Fire Nation ship crashed into his wall, demanding they hand over the Avatar, and Aang, who they just found in an iceberg, walked over and surrendered (but only after Sokka hit the Shouty Prince in the head with Boomerang), and Sokka and Katara had to take his flying bison (And oh my Tui it actually flies) to rescue him, leaving Gran Gran behind, but that was okay, because all he ever needed was Katara, anyway.

Even if Katara didn’t think she needed him.

Sokka travelled with the Avatar across the world, being chased by one crazy, shouty Fire Nation Prince who had a weird burn scar over his left eye, but his weird hairstyle stood out much more to Sokka (it was like a wolf tail without the wolf. Only tail. Who shaved their head like that?). 

They went to Kyoshi Island, where he met Suki, but Suki was Earth Kingdom, not Fire Nation, and besides, she had two identical bands around each of her wrists, both hot pink. Still, he trained with the Warriors, learned their style, got a lifetime prescription of Respect Women Juice, and helped fight off Bald Tail Prince.

They went through the Earth Kingdom, where they met Haru, and if Sokka wasn’t positive Katara and Aang were soulmates, he might’ve thought Katara was trying to hook up with Haru, which was gross, but Haru had his own tattoos that were definitely Earth Kingdom green. Still, they busted him and his dad out of prison, Katara lost their mom’s necklace, and they left before the Angry Prince could show up.

They went to the Abbey, where they found Bato, and Sokka definitely saw a soulmark on his exposed shoulder while the nuns were changing his bandages that matched his mom and dad’s, so Bato really was his step-dad, and Aang kept the letter from them, and they started to leave but turned back in time to get paralyzed. Still, Sokka figured out how to confuse the shirshu, Aang got Katara’s necklace back, and they escaped the Paralyzed Prince.

They went to the Northern Water Tribe, where he met Princess Yue, and he wished so badly that it was her his soulmark matched, but it didn’t, and she was already engaged to some other guy who turned out to be a big idiot. Still, he put on his warriors' paint over his whole face (over his soulmark), held Princess Yue as she died in his arms and cried when she came back as Tui, and they left the Honorable Prince in the north.

They went to Gaoling, where they met Toph, and she was grumpy, rude, loud, blind, and perfect for their group, and she became Aang’s earth bending teacher, although she and Katara didn’t get along. Still, they saved Toph from those wrestlers who tried to ransom her, she ran away from her parents after explaining exactly what she had learned and what she had been doing (they were horrified but they still thought she was too fragile so she rust left), and the Fire Nation Prince was nowhere to be seen.

They went to Ba Sing Se, looking for Appa, but instead they met the Dai Li, and Azula is there (Sokka much prefers Zuko; at least he never really attempted to kill them), and she infiltrated the city. Still, they fought Azula in the catacombs, she killed Aang, and apparently Zuko betrayed Katara (but he was never on their side to begin with).

They found Dad and Bato (and is Sokka going to have to start calling him Dad as well?) and they attacked the Fire Nation on the Day of the Black Sun, but they failed, and Sokka lost Dad and Bato all over again. Still, he had Katara and the rest of the gaang, they were able to escape on Appa, and it was Azula in the tunnels, not Zuko. (Sokka didn’t think about what that meant).

They went to the Western Air Temple, where Zuko found them, and they learned Zuko sent Sparky-Sparky-Boom-Man after them, but that could wait because said man showed up, (holy spirits did Zuko fly up there? Was he trying to get killed?) and Sokka knocked him out with his boomerang. Still, Aang, Sokka, and Katara went on life changing field trips with Zuko, Azula attempted to kill them all again, and the ex-prince was accepted into the gaang.

It wasn’t until Zuko was telling the group how he got his scar that Sokka realized that it was blue war paint around the edges of Zuko’s scar, and Sokka knew that if the scar wasn’t there, a matching soulmark would sit over Zuko’s left eye, exactly like Sokka’s but blue and probably with something else instead of flowers. 

Zuko looked Sokka in the eyes the entire time, as if he knew what Sokka was realizing. As if he had already realized that himself, that first time he knocked Sokka over back in the Southern Water Tribe.

“You knew?” Sokka asked, because he had to be sure. Just like he had to ask why his dad apologized all those years ago. And those were tears filling Zuko’s eyes, like he was crying because he was finally able to let go of a secret that had been weighing on him for years. Zuko wrapped his arms around his torso in an effort to appear smaller, not meeting anyone’s gaze. So Sokka wrapped his arms around Zuko and held him tight, like he could make all the bad things go away with one hug.

They had a war to win at that moment, so he didn’t get to spend as much time with Zuko as he wanted, but suddenly he was running (hobbling) over to where Zuko was twitching on the ground because he got struck by lighting on purpose by his own sister and Sokka couldn’t ever imagine Katara doing something like that to him, but it was all okay, because Zuko was alive, Aang defeated the Fire Lord, and the war was won.

Sokka and Zuko were permitted to recover in the same room by their doctor, who was coincidentally their sister and future sister-in-law, respectively. Sokka’s leg was broken in three places and his knee was dislocated but that’s what he got for sliding off the side of an airship hundreds of feet in the air. Zuko had a literal lightning wound on his chest, so close to his heart (he was so close to dying). Both of them were confined to the bed under no uncertain terms for as long as Katara decided they needed. Surprisingly, being stuck in a bed together with extreme injuries really allowed for some quality bonding time. Sokka knew that he would have loved Zuko even without the soulmark, even if Zuko’s was burned off by the very person they just defeated. 

Zuko’s coronation was a grand affair, but only the people who mattered were allowed to celebrate with the new Fire Lord personally. Sokka kissed Zuko right as the fireworks began, and he knew that this was meant to be.

  
  
  


Years later, after they got married and Sokka was officially made Fire Lady (his choice), Zuko would ask Sokka to paint his soulmark over his scar every anniversary. Every time, without fail, Sokka would oblige his husband while telling him that he never needed a soulmark to know that Zuko was his. And when they adopted their daughter, a lovely earth bender named Izumi, Sokka knew his life wouldn’t get any better than this.

**Author's Note:**

> I hoped you guys liked this. Don’t forget to leave kudos if you think I deserved them and drop a comment if you have anything to add.


End file.
